Whilst driving for Fred Archer of ipswich, He told me that i was going to greece the next day and that i had to hitch up to one of his fridge vans and be in manningtree the next morning first thing.The following morning I collected 6 pallets at Manningtree for 3 deliveries in Southampton that afternoon and then into B.A.T. to load for Greece. This was an easy day’s work to Fred. I made it into B.A.T. late in the afternoon and they told me to come back in the morning (so much for a profitable start to the trip) so I parked up for the night in the truck park and reported back in the morning. After parking in the loading bay and having a cup of coffee I was told that the trailer was no use to them as they could not get enough cartons in because of the meat rails. when I phoned Fred he told me to ring him back in an hour. This went on until one o clock when he accepted that he couldnt get me a backload to ipswich that day and so brought me back empty. When I got back in the yard I was told to drop the fridge and go round to P.C.S.and collect the box van which was having its side door welded closed. The box van was an old american tandem axle job with trilex wheels and no spare,when I mentioned this to Fred he told me to look in the garage for a spare tyre as the tyres on the trailer looked O.K. We found a half reasonable looking tyre and tied it on the roof rack of the unit and I set off back to southampton. In the morning they duly loaded me with the cigarettes and with my ■■■■■■ I set off for dover. He saw me into the dock compound and then left me to get on with clearing custom’s and starting my carnet. I then caught the ferry to Zeebrugge which was by then friday afternoon. When I came off the ferry I drove to heerlen thinking that I would then be able to transit Germany to cz on the saturday. On the saturday morning having covered about twenty kilometers into germany bang went one of the tyres I managed to find a tyre depot open and they fitted my spare tyre and supplied a new tube for a nominal fee.My next problem was in Hungary when the same tyre blew, I managed to buy a second hand tyre at a small garage which got me down to Polycastron in greece before it also went flat. I had them fit a new inner tube at the texaco garage and carried on to piraeus. After waiting a couple of days to clear customs i tipped on the friday. When I phoned Fred for my reload address he told me to be in Caransebes Romania to load the next morning (saturday) with a full load of chairs for Eye in suffolk. As I knew that I would not load on the saturday I was definately not driving all day and all night to get to Caransebes so i had another night in piraeus. on the saturday on my way up to the border i discovered that THE tyre was flat again so I decided to go back in to polycastron, when they split the wheel we discovered the inner tube in shreds. AS I was only picking up a light load I decided to run back on a single tyre on that side but as they were trilex wheels it meant that i had to put on both wheels and spacer and leave off the empty tyre which was was then carried in the empty trailer. Between Niss and Belgrade i noticed what looked like smoke coming from the back of the trailer, on stopping i discovered that the single tyre was flat and smoking. I then decide to put one of the tyres from the other side on which would then give me two single wheels on the back axle and so set about removing wheels as i was rolling one round to the other side I spotted a bloody great bolt sticking into the tyre. jesus christ this is a tyreing story. The only thing left to do was throw the wheels off the back axle inside the trailer, tie up the axle and head for caransebes. When I arrived there were four trucks in front of me which had been there since friday(so much for my saturday load) I had the factory fitters repair the damaged tyre and fit them back on the rear axle as singles. the two u/s tyres were lifted onto my roof rack and secured there as Fred would otherwise accuse me of selling them. By the time I got back to Dover two of the other tyres were below the legal limit ,so i phoned Fred and told him that i would either need four tyres or the other two removed and run on singles,about a couple of hours later a tyre fitter arrived and asked where is the guy that wants two tyres taken off his trailer. I arrived at Eye with the load of chairs and four trailer tyres on my roof rack.When I was Tipped i ran back to the yard empty and not a word was said about tyres.
Nice one M&C…like the bit about waiting acouple of days to clear customs in Pireaus…then staying another night instead of rushing for the re-load…cant see it happening nowadays though 
Do you have any other tales and pics of that time? Its always good to hear these tales…particulaly if, like me, you were never fortunate to get down that far.
Cheers, bullitt.
thanks a nice read, i take it you are expert at wheel changeing
I can tell a tale or two about them days. especially the ones that involved my Saviem. I tipped in Saloniki and had a reload from Yugoslavia, 22 tonne of prunes for Montrose.
I loaded after getting caught in a yugo holiday and a wedding and then went to the customs. The man who sealed my trailer told me that my colleague had forgotten his passport and his carnet was to be started at Tompa. Could I take it to him as he was not going to be able to leave the country without it.
Anyway the old Saviem had seen better days and it took a while to get past Beograd. (well the National anyway) 
On the way my fuel pump packed up and I managed to get the truck on the side of the road. A short nights sleep before daylight and I was woken by the local plod who wouldnt let me park on the motorway. He stopped a little Merc lookalike 12 tonner and forced the driver to tow me off the motorway, (probably by gun or threat to his sister)
This friendly driver towed me over 300 km to an old uncle who had parts for my Saviem, they didnt fit but he still sold them to me 
Out of two lift pumps I managed to rescue the diapragm from the new one and get my truck running by standing a 25litre can of diesel on the top of the tilt and bleeding the system that way.
Eventually I arrived at the border crossing at Tompa to find a very drunk and annoyed Dave Chamberlain who had discovered that I had his passports, He couldnt go back or forward and his threat of violence towards me was calmed down when we both got ■■■■■■ and emotional
I dropped a valve on a Volvo F88 outside Ljubljana football stadium. They had to come out from Beograd… Just before Xmas a few years ago on my way to Athens. I was stuck there a week with no heating…Lovely! 
I know Jamie has loads of stories from them days. 
Come on jamie get typing. 
Merry Christmas Jamie
Geoff:
I know Jamie has loads of stories from them days.
Come on jamie get typing.
Hear, here.